Fiber reinforced profiles are often formed by pulling (“pultruding”) continuous fibers through a resin and then shaping the fiber-reinforced resin within a pultrusion die. Because the profiles have continuous fibers oriented in the machine direction (longitudinal), they often exhibit a high tensile strength in the machine direction. The transverse strength properties of such profiles however, are often poor, which can cause the material to split when a stress is applied in a cross-machine direction (transverse). In this regard, various attempts have been made to strengthen profiles in the transverse direction. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,514,135 to Davies, et al. describes a pultruded part formed by providing a first layer of reinforcing rovings extending in a longitudinal pultrusion direction and forming a second layer on the first layer, the second layer containing at least some reinforcing fibers that extend in the transverse direction. One problem with this method, however, it is that it relies upon a thermoset resin to help achieve the desired strength properties. Such resins are difficult to use during manufacturing and do not always possess good bonding characteristics for forming layers with other materials. Furthermore, the method described therein is also problematic in that it is difficult to apply the transverse fibers at selective locations (e.g., where they are needed).
As such, a need currently exists for a method and apparatus of forming a pultruded profile that contains a continuous fiber layer and a discontinuous fiber layer.